Subminiature ribbon coaxial cable is used in many applications in the electronics industry for connecting small electronic components to other small components. Such subminiature ribbon coaxial cable 18 is shown in cross section in FIG. 2. Subminiature ribbon coaxial cable generally comprises an outer jacket 200 made of plastic or other elastomeric material which insulates and holds together a plurality of subminiature coaxial cables. Inside outer jacket 200 is an insulating shield 202 (also called a "sheath"), each surrounding, in this embodiment, two outer conductor or "drain" wires 204 and center conductor insulation 206 which surrounds a center conductor 208.
It is known in the art that them are tools available to cut the outer jacket 200 and shields 202 and then partially pull apart the outer jacket to form a "tab" 302 as shown in FIG. 3. It is desirable to remove tab 302 to form the configuration as shown in FIG. 4, wherein drain wires 204 are bent perpendicularly to the subminiature ribbon coaxial cable 18 and a portion of the center conductor insulation 206 is stripped from center conductor 208 to prepare the end of the center conductor (known as "shiner" when the insulation is removed) for connection to other components. It is currently known in the art that this is a manual action.
Therefore, a problem in the art is that there is no tool for fully stripping and forming subminiature coaxial ribbon cable for connection to connecting or other components.